Fifty players, not counting injured defenseman Ryan Whitney, will take part in the camp.That's how many are scheduled to be on hand tomorrow, anyway. How long some of them will stick is another matter.General manager Ray Shero said "we'll get right down to it pretty quickly," and that cuts and reassignments likely will come even before the exhibition opener against Tampa Bay Saturday night at Mellon Arena.

Pitts wrote:They don't have any room or time for invites. Camp is only 10 day long. they need to make decisions asap.

I would think one or two invites are possible, especially if said invites have legitimate NHL experience. Two guys that are of interest to me are Parrish, in case two of Fedotenko, Pesonen and Staal don't earn the roles as top-two line left wingers, and Shanahan, as a fourth liner who sees top power play time. On a tryout contract, they'd be there as fall-back plans, since they've been around for a while and what you see is what you get with them, which might not be the case with Stone, Filewich, Caputi, and Pesonen, who are vying for roster spots -- and, to a lesser extent, Beech, Taffe and Thomas, who have some NHL experience, but are vying for roster spots.

T-Bo played fairly well in the back-up role. With Fleury established as the #1 now, I wouldn't mind bringing in T-Bo on a Conklin-like deal.

It may not be a bad idea at all, actually. Allowing Sabu and T-Bo to duke it out for the backup spot, with the loser heading to the AHL, would give the Penguins solid depth at the position. Regardless, I doubt we see something like this.

T-Bo played fairly well in the back-up role. With Fleury established as the #1 now, I wouldn't mind bringing in T-Bo on a Conklin-like deal.

It may not be a bad idea at all, actually. Allowing Sabu and T-Bo to duke it out for the backup spot, with the loser heading to the AHL, would give the Penguins solid depth at the position. Regardless, I doubt we see something like this.

Eh. I wouldn't doubt it. They set the precedent last season when they brought in Conklin. They wanted at least somebody with some more NHL experience.

Defence21 wrote:It may not be a bad idea at all, actually. Allowing Sabu and T-Bo to duke it out for the backup spot, with the loser heading to the AHL, would give the Penguins solid depth at the position. Regardless, I doubt we see something like this.

Eh. I wouldn't doubt it. They set the precedent last season when they brought in Conklin. They wanted at least somebody with some more NHL experience.

But last year they also weren't all that high on either Brown or Curry, and Fleury wasn't an established starter. Additionally, Conklin's signing was announced, if my memory serves me correctly, well before camp began.

This year, there is plenty of talk about Curry's improvement, so much so that those in-the-know are suggesting he'll travel with the team to Europe and also that he'll be Fleury's backup next season. They've got confidence in their depth this year, something that wasn't the case when Conklin was brought in.

At that point, neither Curry nor Brown even had AHL experience. They both have it now, especially Curry, who emerged as the #1 down there and played in a long playoff run. I'm very much against bringing in a number three with NHL experience because it will block Curry. I think he has some potential and I'd feel comfortable with him getting some NHL time if injuries occur.

Henry Hank wrote:At that point, neither Curry nor Brown even had AHL experience. They both have it now, especially Curry, who emerged as the #1 down there and played in a long playoff run. I'm very much against bringing in a number three with NHL experience because it will block Curry. I think he has some potential and I'd feel comfortable with him getting some NHL time if injuries occur.

I think, in general, the concern comes more from Sabourin stepping into a starting role if Fleury gets hurt than Curry stepping into a backup role. In my opinion, if they brought in a guy like Thibault -- and I doubt the will -- it would be a sign that Sabourin is heading to WBS as the fourth goalie on the depth chart, behind Fleury, Thibault, and Curry. That's not going to happen.

I guess if they weren't comfortable with Sabourin in that role, they would have just bought him out and either made a greater effort to keep Conklin or went and got someone else. I know most people aren't all that big on Sabourin, but look at what Thibault did last season. He doesn't seem like a better option. Then again, everyone hated Thibault while he was here and didn't make a fuss about him until he was gone. Maybe Sabourin is experiencing similar treatment.

I think the team is good enough defensively now that if something happens to Fleury, they can live with a Sabourin/Curry combo because they don't have to rely on their goalie to bail out the D constantly. A good team can do fine with an unspectacular goalie, at least in the regular season. If something happened to Fleury that caused him to miss the rest of the season, I'd expect them to address that at the deadline. I think it's important for Curry to remain the clear #1 in the AHL and get a shot at NHL experience if the opportunity comes up. I see him being the back-up next year and potentially trade bait down the line ala Mike Smith last year.